1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for carrying out a process of introducing a variety of application programs to be each executed to perform data processing to the user and carrying out a process of constructing an application execution environment and relates to an information processing method adopted by the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information processing apparatus such as a PC (Personal Computer) or a portable terminal makes use of a variety of application programs as programs to be each executed to carry out data processing. It is to be noted that the following description makes use of technological terms “application” and “application module” as terms having the same meaning as an application program.
In order to execute an application program by making use of a PC, for example, the user of the PC purchases a medium such as a disc used for storing the application program from a software outlet store and then installs the software recorded in advance in the disc medium into the PC to serve as the application program. As an alternative, the software to serve as the application program is downloaded from an application-software provider by way of the Internet and installed in the PC. After an environment for executing the application program has been set following the processing to install the program into the PC, data processing can be carried out by making use of the application program.
In recent years, in most cases, an application program is installed into a PC by downloading the program from an application-software provider by way of the Internet. In addition, the number of types of application programs that can be utilized by the user has also been increasing day by day. A number of application-software providers provide a variety of application programs so that it is difficult for individual users to accurately identify the functions of a large number of application programs.
When a user makes an attempt to obtain a new application program, in many cases, the user typically searches displays of application programs each offered as a commodity in a software outlet store for the desired one, or the user typically makes an access to an application introducing site in the Internet in order to get the desired application program. As an alternative, the user may carry out a process to search a source application to be described later by referring to FIG. 5 as a new application program. That is to say, the user carries out data search processing by making use of a keyword.
However, information on application programs that can be obtained by the user by searching displays of application programs and making an access to an application introducing site is limited information in many cases. For example, in order to examine compatibility (and/or other attributes) of the desired application program with other application programs utilized by the user, it takes much time and much labor. After searching displays of application programs each offered as a commodity in a software outlet store for the desired one, the user purchases the desired application program and install the program in a PC owned by the user. However, in some cases, the new application program installed in the PC cannot be executed in the environment existing in the PC.
On the other hand, there are already satisfactory systems provided for contents such as a musical content and a movie. For example, there is utilized a content introducing system for analyzing features of a content acquired by the user. Then, a content providing server employed in the content introducing system automatically searches for a content having features similar to the features of the content acquired by the user. Subsequently, a content obtained as a result of the search operation is recommended to the user.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-234596 discloses a search and distribution system for carrying out a process to edit a content obtained from a content providing server and uploading the edited content to the content providing server which then presents the uploaded content to other users. A variety of such search and distribution systems each used for searching for a content such as a musical content or a movie and for distributing the content obtained as a result of the search operation to users have been proposed.
Unlike a content such as a musical content, however, an application program executed to carry out data processing imposes a number of conditions that must be satisfied, making it difficult to carry out processes to recommend a proper application program to the user and present the recommended application program to the user. The conditions include a requirement that the application program shall be executable to carry out data processing desired by the user and a requirement that the application program shall be compatible with application programs already utilized by the user. In the case of a musical content, a content to be recommended to a user can be correctly selected on the basis of only information on favorites with the user. In the case of an application program, however, by merely selecting an application program, which is to be recommended to a user, on the basis of only information on favorites with the user, the selected program may not be satisfactory to the user in many cases.